A populist party within New Zealand’s ruling coalition has introduced a controversial bill that seeks to legally define men and women based on biological sex, denouncing what it calls the “cancerous social engineering” of modern gender policies.
The New Zealand First Party, led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, submitted the draft legislation to parliament on Tuesday. The party, which has previously advocated banning transgender women from women’s restrooms and sports, said the bill aims to counter what it views as harmful “woke ideology.”
The move follows a recent UK Supreme Court ruling that upheld a legal definition of womanhood based on birth sex—an outcome Peters said reflects a global shift toward “common sense.”
The proposed law defines a woman as an “adult human biological female” and a man as an “adult human biological male.” Peters argued this would reinforce the safety and rights of women, which he claims have been eroded by progressive gender policies.
“These definitions in law fight back against the cancerous social engineering we’ve seen being pushed in society by a woke minority,” he said. “The need for legislation like this shows how far the deluded left has taken us as a society. But we are fighting back.”
New Zealand First is the smallest member of the country’s three-party coalition government, and it remains uncertain whether the bill will gain enough support to advance. It was introduced by a party MP rather than the government itself, meaning parliamentary time to debate it is not guaranteed.
Opposition Labour leader Chris Hipkins dismissed the proposal, accusing Peters of chasing headlines rather than offering substantive leadership.
“They’re interested in one headline after the next,” Hipkins told Radio New Zealand. “They don’t really have a coherent programme and they’re certainly not focused on the things that are required to lead New Zealand forward.”